New history book holds a mirror up to our complexity

If you’re expecting to find a definitive statement about who we are in the just-published New Oxford History of New Zealand, think again.

The first up-to-date, multi-authored general history book of its kind, The New Oxford History holds a mirror up to our complex past and complicated present.

“The book sets out to explode the myth of national identity,” says Prof. Giselle Byrnes, Pro Vice-Chancellor Postgraduate Studies at the University of Waikato, who conceived the project and edited the collection of 22 specially written essays.

“There’s long been an assumption that NZ history is written around the idea of national identity. You find that narrative running through almost all our general histories, and it’s led to an increasingly insular and myopic view of NZ history. In this book, we set out to test that assumption.”

The book is organised in six thematic sections highlighting narratives that support the myth of national identity, such as biculturalism, NZ as a social laboratory, settlement and unsettlement.

There is a focus on social and cultural history, with chapters on the history of sexuality, leisure, sport, welfare, health and well-being, as well as the more traditional areas of political and economic history.

With contributions from both established scholars and the up-and-coming generation of researchers in history, archaeology, economics, anthropology and cultural studies, The New Oxford History exposes readers to a number of different voices and perspectives.

“Historians today are sceptical about truth and facts, preferring a range of historical interpretations, so a multi-authored history is quite appropriate,” says Prof. Byrnes.

“Oxford has published two previous histories of NZ in 1981 and 1992. But there have been major developments in the last ten years and a whole new generation of historians has emerged, so I made the case to Oxford that we needed to have a clean sweep and ask a whole new crop of people to contribute.”

The 22 scholars who contributed to the book are based in NZ, Australia and the US, and include Waikato’s Associate Prof. Catharine Colebourne.